Reference no: EM133271235

Angelica's Paralegal Services

When she was a Paralegal Studies student, Angelica worked summers for a paralegal that mostly contracted investigation, litigation and prosecution work from a large public housing authority. Angelica's work initially consisted of preparing documents relating to eviction and claims, but later involved background checks on tenants, on-site investigations and eventually appearing before landlord-tenant tribunals.

Her boss, Harry, owned the company and he would make deals with the public housing authority to handle batches of cases at a time; usually running to about a month's worth of work for each contract. The housing authority had several lawyers and paralegals on staff, but farmed out most of this kind of work. Other paralegal firms would bid on these cases, but Harry got the lion's share of the work and could usually dispatch the cases quickly. Harry's firm would also occasionally represent a tenant or large private landlord before the tribunal.

Harry died. Angelica heard the news on the day she graduated from college. She knew that the public housing authority would be looking for someone to take over Harry's cases. She also knew that there was lots of work for a paralegal ready to chase it. Buying Harry's company was not really an option because he worked from his home office and the only real assets were some old office equipment and furniture. The car Harry used was the personal vehicle he shared with this wife.

Angelica decided to move quickly. She realized that she could borrow start-up money from one of the government-sponsored programs if she could put together a Business Plan.

Questions

What will Angelica identify as her site?

Who or what will Angelica identify as her primary "market"? Explain briefly.

Who will be Angelica's direct competitor? Indirect competition? Explain briefly.

How will Angelica go about assessing the market potential? Give details.